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Bar Coding and Identification Wiki
Introduction and Scope This bar coding and identification Wikia introduces the reader to the history, technological progression, design, and examples of bar coding. What is a Bar Code? A bar code is a printed pattern and often attached series of numbers, commonly seen on purchased retail items, that allows that item to be inventoried and kept track of. That small printed pattern, often seen as stripes forming a rectangle or pixels in a square, is read by a bar code scanner using varied forms of lightwaves and reflections to identify the item and verify it's location or usage. 1 Bar Code Start Up Revolutionary Start 2 All the way back in 1948, two graduate students at Philadelphia's Drexel Institute of Technology, Silver and Woodland, overheard the president of a large food chain corporation pleading with and being turned down by one of the deans to take on a research project to come up with a solution to automatically inventorying items in the store at receiving and again at check out. The only solution for grocery stores at the time were manually punched cards that were timely, costly, bulky, and not very accurate in the daily chaos of the industry. Even though the dean did not approve of the project, Silver and Woodland wanted to take it up. Their original idea was inspired by the current uses for morse code and movie soundtracks that used ultraviolet lighting. They saw potential but printing ink was not stable and it was far too costly. Silver and Woodland filed patents on October 20, 1949 to secure the idea and determine ultimately whether the vertical stripe or concentric circle pattern should be used in the industry. In 1952, Silver and Woodland built the first functional bar code reader that was as large as a dresser and needed to be covered by black oilcloth to shut out ambient light that would interfere with the readers. The device successfully read electronically printed material but often destroyed the paper and required an excessive amount of power and limited data retention. In 1971, RCA bought out the patent and jolted several companies in to action to see the idea through. Separately, in the early 1960's, David Collins saw the need for inventory of railroad cars with the Pennsylvania Railroad and constructed reflective blue and orange stripes that corresponded to the numbers 0-9. The majority of the kinks were worked out of the system by 1967 with adoption and equipment installation in 1970, but no real profits came out of this change as the equipment and upkeep was still far too costly. Meanwhile, technology was catching up with Silver, Woodland, and Collins with the introduction of lasers. These lasers were a far cheaper, faster, and less destructive way to read the black and white electronically printed bar codes. Two systems were quietly put in to place for testing at General Motors and General Trading. The system was working but the machines to make this happen were still being hand built and the current laser technology could only read two-digit bar codes. A Kroger grocery chain volunteered to act as the guinea pig for the new barcoding technology in the mid 1970's and a committee was put together to look into the standardization of the manufacturing and use of the bar codes and scanners. This testing phase was called "The Manhattan Project" and was headed by Alan Haberman. Some guidelines created by this committee included the scanner being able to read the bar code at any angle at a specified range of distances, it was becoming increasingly cheaper and easier to print bar codes and labels with newer lasers and integrated circuits, and the pay-off for automated checkout systems was forecasted to be 2.5 years. (all information for the "Revolutionary Start" can be found from Reference 2 ) Current Bar Code and Scanner Vendors As barcodes and the scanners, or readers, have advanced, the most common vendors have been identified as: 3 Many of these top brands are actually all part of Monarch Products, as seen in the top Barcode Printers list. A full list of all barcode printer and barcode scanner manufacturers, vendors, can be seen in Reference3 Diversity Codes The most commonly used types of barcodes are: 5 and 14 Scanners The most commonly used types of barcode scanners are: 7 and 14 Areas of Use Manufacturing Barcodes and their scanners have become an invaluable and vital part of the manufacturing world and their facilities, without which inventory and processing times would skyrocket and become far more expensive. All aspects of manufacturing facilities require barcodes now; from compliance labeling codes on all shipping and receiving items to in-house personalize location and inventory codes. The two types of manufacturing facilities are discrete, relying on bills of materials and subassemblies such as automobile industries, and process, consisting of more formula based construction such as chemical processing. Discrete and process manufacturing facilities both use barcodes in the same in the same fashion through: receiving, raw material inventory, picking, work-in-progress, product identification, finished goods, and shipping. When raw materials or pre made subassemblies arrive at the shipping and receiving dock of a facility, the material handler either scans in the labeling code on the package or inspects and creates an in-house barcode for processing and inventory purposes. The existing labeling code identifies the contents of the package; quantity, description, and other pertinent information for check-in. If there is no compliance label, as mentioned, the material handler uses a thermal or desk printer to create a code labeling the same information including the location within the facility. Once the packages have been scanned at receiving and the information put in to the system, the package is denoted as part of the inventory within the facility and is denoted a location to be stored or used as well as updating the inventory levels. When raw materials are shipped in to or transferred in to a facility, they are manually put in the facilities system where an in-house customized barcode is printed specifically for that item including inventory update on quantity, location, and uses. That barcode is then either placed on the raw material itself and/or on the physical location. When a work order is issued within the facility, the barcode location information attached or associated with each item is printed on the pick sheet along with the quantity. When the picker retrieves his pick sheet, he is told where each item is. Once the picker gets to each location he then scans the items he retrieves and the order is completed and the inventory is updated. The pick sheet also denotes to the picker where these items for the assembly are to go. When the picker is inspecting the items he has located with the pick sheet and verifies the correct amount, he scans the items barcode and quantity as mentioned above. Once the item has been initially scanned by this picker, it is denoted in the system as WIP, or work-in-progress. The item will remain identified as WIP in the facilities system until the final assembly barcode has been scanned for shipping. This allows the facility to keep track of cycle time, throughput time, item usage, total inventory, and other bottlenecks in the system. Once a final assembly has been inspected and approved, the material handler scans the work order to create and print a new unique barcode that is used for the shipping of the final assembly. This scanning of the work order by the material handler closes the work order and moves any and all parts within the assembly from WIP to used, reducing the total inventory to accurate numbers. This barcode now allows the scanner to identify the details of this final assembly; the quantity, item description, serial number, or other pertinent information. The package also receives a shipping label code to denote where the package is to be sent. At each step in the process of manufacturing an item, a barcode was necessary. All information obtained for "Areas of Use: Manufacturing" found in Resource 6 Retail The uses and value of barcodes and their scanners in the retail industry is very similar to that of the manufacturing industry. Commonly known retail industries; such as grocery stores and shopping malls, make use of barcodes and scanners in their high volume trade. The process that an item goes through and the use for it's barcode follows the same general flow as it would in a manufacturing facility: receiving, store inventory, floor inventory, point-of-sale. When a shipment is received by a company or store, the material handler or receiver scans the existing shipping barcode on the package, or hand inspects the package and creates an in-house barcode labe,l to check the package in to the store's inventory. Scanning the pre-existing or newly printed barcode label for the received package logs the item description, details, quantity, and sometimes even price of the items in to the system. Once they are logged initially in to the system they are denoted at "stock" or "store" inventory; the safety stock or replenishing stock of desired items waiting to be put on the floor. As items on the floor move from inventory to point-of-sale, the system identifies the quantity levels of products and notifies the system of low level items. These low level items identified with their barcodes at point-of-sale and shown to the material handlers, who then use the barcode for location purposes to find that item in the "stock" inventory scan it (however many are required), which moves the item(s) in the system from "stock inventory" to "floor inventory". While an item is in "stock" and "floor" inventory, it is counted as WIP (work-in-progress) just as it would be in a manufacturing facility. Once the item has been scanned at point-of-sale to the customer, it adjusts the true inventory in the system, removing it from WIP and adding to the profit. Barcodes can also be used by the customers in retail industries. In many shopping malls, there are scanners attached to some of the posts between aisles where a customer can take the item in their hand, scan it, and read the description, location, price, and serial number if it could not be found on the other tags or was found missplaced. In grocery stores especially, barcodes and scanners are making heavy advance. Kroger, as mentioned earlier as the starting guinea pig for the pilot study of barcodes in grocery stores, continues to make headway in the industry. While still in the trial phase, Kroger has introduced the Kroger Advantage Checkout System. This new system allows the customer much more control and ease over their checkout process. Most items placed in a persons cart at a grocery store already have pre-existing barcodes on them. However, some items such as fresh produce and some bakery items, do not. Customers, with this system, may now go in to the produce or bakery section, select and "produce bag" or "pre bag" their items, place them on a freestanding scale, select the item and quantity as they would normally at checkout, weight the item(s), and can print out a specific barcode for that bag of produce or bakery goods that can then be scanned at check-out as a normal item, nothing different. When the customer has completed their shopping, they will proceed to the checkout lanes. With the new Kroger Advantage Checkout System, the customer places all of their items on a conveyer belt that runs at 8 times the speed of the current belts, and scans the items as they pass through the tunnel. The scanning tunnel uses 3D and circular scanning technology in order to read all of the barcodes that pass through the tunnel at rapid speeds and at any position. While the items are being scanned through the tunnel they are automatically added up. By the time you have placed all of your items on the belt and walked to the end where your groceries are bagged, a receipt with a barcode has been printed for you. You take this one barcode to the register right next to you and checkout by scanning the one sheet. An early version of the System can be seen below: 11 Healthcare Healthcare has just more recently taken up the barcoding system within its trade, and rightly so. In any healthcare system; a hospital, an urgent care center, a pharmecy, a nursing home, there is an extremely high volume of data that must be tracked and updated continuously. With such a complex system, all data must be as accurate as possible at all times. Now with the introduction of barcodes in to the healthcare system, all facets can be individually and simultaneously tracked. Using barcodes within the system, that are specific to that individual facility and connected to each other, can help to "identify patients, provide instant data access and input, ensure that the correct patients are tested, and make information more secure and medication administration easier and safer" 13 . Using a Hospital as an example, we can take a look at each of the facets that intimately use barcoding and their scanners to operate. (All information below belongs to Resource 12 .) In the hospital admissions process: As soon as a patient signs in, all of their information (SSN, healthcare provider information, contact information, personal data, etc) is recorded and automatically creates a unique barcode to put on their folder for the visit so that each doctor, receptionist, technician, can scan and know exactly what the file is for. This also lets the system know who and how many people are in the systema, where they are in the process, and how long they have been there. Along with the barcode printed for the patients folder, the patient themself also receives a wristband with the same barcode for verification purposes. In the hospital point-of-care process: The "point-of-care" process is the point at which the patient is actually receiving attention or treatment. A mobile scanning device, and sometimes additional mobile printer, is the most effective. When the technician or doctor come to see the patient, they can scan the barcode on the patients writst and folder, to verify matching documentation and patient, with speed and ease to both patient and scanner. When both are scanned and verified, the scanner can update the patients information and status in the process automatically. While also at the point-of-care, the overseers can verify that any medications, transfusion bags, food, and all else match the patient's barcode. This helps ensure safety and security within the system and for the patient. In the hospital specimen collection: In the laboratory, there are many containers and viles being continuously moved around. Barcodes help to eliminate confusions and errors and create a more efficient and accurate process identifying and transfering collections. As soon as a specimen is collected, a barcode matching the patients folder and wristband is created and affixed to the specimen container, also including the pertinent information to the lab technicians for transfer locations. The large variety of barcode types is also beneficial in the laboratory environment as there as several choices of barcodes to meet each specimen container's needs, with a range of chemically sound and surface sturdy options. In the hospital pharmecy: The pharmecy of any medical or even retail facility is essentially a small warehouse with many, many small items. However, in this environment the security and safety of the items is even more stressed. Barcodes help to alleviate uncertainty with security as prescription barcodes must sync and match up with the patients barcodes. Pharmecies require multiple types of barcodes affixed to their products as their are going directly from inventory to point-of-sale. Portable scanners and printers are readily available to technicians. Barcodes here also act as they would in a warehouse, in the sense that once a prescription or item enters the pharmecy and is scanned in and given a retail barcode, it is signed in to the pharmecy system as WIP and is removed from inventory count and WIP upon purchase and retreival of item by the patient. In the hospital material's management: In addition to the pharmecy, a hospital must have efficient means of keeping track of supplies within the hospital. A proper inventory must be kept of all items and must be managed in a way that all supplies got to the proper location at the needed time. The high amount of complexity in these operations can easily lend to operator errors; barcoding helps alleviate this error. Barcode scanners at all stations help to ensure that immediate feedback and instruction is given to the proper terminals at the necessary times. How It Works Codes and Their Scanners 15 and 16 The most common barcode assignment company is the UCC, or Uniform Code Council, that assigns a six-digit manufacturer identification number to those manufacturer applicants that are approved admission and pay the annual fee to be in the system. This code, or symbol, is the first six-digits to the UPC, or Universal Product Code. The UPC symbol in its entirety has two parts; the machine readable code and the human readable twelve-digit UPC number, the first six of which are the manufacturer identification number. The next five digits refer to the item number. The final digit is the check number. Using the example UPC of 639382000393: # Sum the digits in odd positions (position number 1,3,5 etc) -> 6 + 9 + 8 + 0 + 0 + 9 = 32 # Multiply that number by 3 -> 3 * 32 = 96 # Sum the digits is the even positions (position number 2,4,6 etc) -> 3 + 3 + 2 + 0 + 3 = 11 # Add steps 2 and 3 -> 96 + 11 = 107 # This number is the equivalent of the first eleven-digits. The last digit, or check digit, when added to the number in step 4, must be a multiple of 10. Therefore the check digit is 107 + 3 = 110 -> check digit = 3 Each item that is scanned must pass this check test. If the check digit is wrong, the barcode or reader is wrong, and the scanner will not read. The scanner, at point-of-sale conditions, reads the code and sends it to the store's central Point-Of-Sale system to look up the UPC number and send the actual price of the item back to the cashier. While this counting and check method is still true and we can verify this with our eyes and the written numbers, the scanners read the same numbers through the black and white variated stripes read by the scanner more than 500 times a second. The stripes correlate to the numbers 0 through 9 in the fashion shown here (in the visual to the right). -> Scanners also use what is referred to as "Quiet Zones" on each barcode to ensure proper reading of the code and UPC number. A "quiet zone", or zones as there are two, are the blank or purposely left white sections on either end of the barcode variated stripes and UPC digits below to ensure that the code is not interfered with. Design Parameters Benefits and Limitations18 The barcoding and scanner system has both clear benefits and possible limitations in four distinct common areas: time, inventory, labels, and costs. Time: In less than a second, the scanning of a barcode can bring instant displays of a handful of data pertaining to the scanned product to the scanners fingertips; however, should there be an unusually high volume of customers (then items to scan) and the machinery malfunction or barcode be damaged or incorrect in any manner, the system would bottleneck. Inventory: Without barcoding and scanners, keeping track of inventory in a plant, facility, or any shop would have to be done manually and would be tedious and vastly time consuming. Barcoding allows this process to be done simultaneously with receiving, process check-ins, and final assembly audits and shipping. While this can be immensely helpful, it can also be a setback when shipments come in large bulk in crates or containers. Shipments in crates or containers must be scanned individually as each barcode is unique, this could take a decent amount of time to sort through. Labels: The labels attached to each product and barcode can make it very easy for the material handler or picker to identify items quickly and efficiently, but quite directly if the label is damaged or missing it becomes extremely difficult to identify and find the proper location within inventory for the item. If the UPC visual number can be read, it can then be entered in to the system manually but takes considerably more time. Costs: The time and energy saved by scanning barcodes for each item and process is nearly rivaled by that of the cost of the barcode printing and the scanners to read them, including the costs involved with training, installation, set up, and maintenance. Even with near costs to profits, the barcoding and scanners are still a benefit to companies in the long run. How much can be stored? The amount of data able to be stored by a barcode depends entirely on the type of barcode. The majority of 1D barcodes can only store data horizontally, so it is limited to only a few alpha-numeric characters. However, the more recently constructed 2D barcodes are able to store data both vertically and horizontally which holds more than 4,000 characters. 17 7 Most Common Reasons Bar Codes Fail While barcodes and their scanners have been and are still proving to be tremendous leaps in technology, the kinks are not entirely gone. We most commonly find that barcodes and barcode scanners fail for the following reasons: 4 1. Shrink wrap or excessive lamination covers the barcode 2. The barcode has poor print quality due to excessive press gain 3. The barcode was printed with poor color combinations 4. The barcode was printed on clear or translucent polybag 5. An excessive reflective quality of metals or metalized substrates 6. A violation in the barcode quiet zones 7. The placement of the barcode is too close to a fold or edge References 1 - Rouse, Margaret. "What Is Bar Code (or Barcode)? - Definition from WhatIs.com." Search Manufacturing ERP. TechTarget. Web.. 2 - Seideman, Tony. "Barcode History: Barcodes Sweep the World." Barcoding Incorporated. Web. . 3 - "Manufacturers." Barcode Manufacturer Catalog. Web. . 4 - Nachtrieb, John. "The Seven Most Common Reasons That Barcodes Fail." Barcode-Test: Getting It Done Right. 9 July 2013. Web. . 5 - "Different Types of Barcodes." MakerBarcodes. Web. . 6 - "Bar Codes in the Manufacturing Process." Zebra. Web. . 7 - "What Is Barcode Reader (POS Scanner, Bar Code Reader, Price Scanner)? - Definition from WhatIs.com." WhatIs.com. Web. . 8 - "About High Capacity Color Barcode Technology." Microsoft Research. Microsoft. Web. . 9 - "DataDotDNA." DataDot Technoogy USA. Web. . 10 - "Chemical Barcodes Made from MOFs." Royal Society of Chemistry. Web. . 11 - "Kroger's Advantage Checkout System." Vimeo. Chris Norris. Web. . 12 - "Barcoding Hospital Data Capture Solutions." Healthcare by Barcoding Incorporated. Barcoding Inc. Web. . 13 - Lau, Stirling. "Barcode Checks." Nursing Management 18.10 (2012): 11. ProQuest. Web. . 14 - Tompkins, J.A., J.A. White, Y.A. Bozer, and J.M.A. Tarchoco. Facilities Planning. 4th ed. Wiley, 2010. Print. 15 - "How UPC Bar Codes Work - HowStuffWorks." HowStuffWorks. Web. . 16 - "Barcodes and Barcode Scanners." Explain That Stuff! Chris Woodford. Web. . 17 - "Choosing the Right Barcode." Telaeris. Telaeris 2015, 30 Sept. 2011. Web. . 18 - Martin, Krista. "What Are the Advantages & Disadvantages of a Barcode?" EHow. Demand Media, 17 Mar. 2011. Web. .Category:Browse